Customer Reviews

Lying Awake

5 star:		(61)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I read this book in one sitting, and I haven't stopped thinking about it since. It is perfect, amazing, hard to believe it's only 192 pages. Like Kazuo Ishiguro's "Remains of the Day," this novel finds suspense and emotional drama in the smallest details, and it is just as beautifully written. The life in this Carmelite monastery, where speech is almost completely forbidden, comes to life with such full, tactile detail. Most importantly, Salzman manages to write about a crisis of faith without becoming touchy-feely or vague. He goes right to the heart of the matter -- to the heart of this character -- and writes about her dilemma in a way that makes it universal, whether you're religious or not: the search for grace. I was incredibly moved. Salzman continues to amaze with his range. This is his most transcendent work.

Salzman's wonderful novel will haunt you. In sparse, cloister-empty language, he tells the story of Carmelite Sister John of the Cross, a woman whose long hunger for God has finally been filled by three years worth of profoundly changing mystical experiences. One day she's forced to ask herself if the ecstatic episodes for which she yearns are what she ought to be seeking--whether, in short, the great spiritual hunger that's like a "hole in the center of her being" (p. 115) should be stuffed with comforting content or embraced for the resplendent absence it is.

It's significant that Salzman's heroine takes the religious name of "John of the Cross," the great Carmelite mystic who writes of the "nada" of God. Her crisis is John's dark night of the soul, and it also faces all of us who search for God. Sister John's final discovery about the soul's hunger for the Divine is one that may surprise you. But in Salzman's artful hands, it rings absolutely true.

Five stars isn't enough for this book. Nothing short of a National Book Award can do it justice.

Mark Salzman's LYING AWAKE is the story of one woman's test of faith. She is Sister John of the Cross, a Carmelite nun living in a monastery surrounded by the hubbub that is Los Angeles. She has given most of her life to the service of God, and she has been gifted with wonderful, ecstatic visions. Words have poured out of her into her journals -- her poetry has inspired seekers within and without the Order. Now in middle age, she suddenly discovers that the headaches that have accompanied these visions could threaten her life -- and, more devastating than this, they could be indications that her visions are nothing but hallucinations brought on by a medical condition. Her choice is plain but difficult -- if she agrees to the surgery that could correct this condition and possibly save her life, she risks losing the one aspect of her religious life that she has seen as a validation of her Vocation. Not an easy choice.

Salzman's prose is as spare and delicate as any I have read -- and yet it conveys so very much. Life for the cloistered Sisters is revealed to the reader without romanticizing -- in all of its simplicity, hardship and beauty. His descriptions of the nuns' cells, the chapel, the monastery garden all shine with a gentle but firm light -- they all seem so present and real. The emotions that pass through Sister John are just as real -- this journey she is taking is one of the soul, and it is not an easy one. Her journal entries are so spiritually evocative --

'an invisible sun
a shock wave of pure Being
swept my pain away, swept everything away
until all that was left was God.

God awakening.'

In another entry, she describes the dissolution of the Self to the Eternal Will:

'You were here all along.
I pierce the universe.
God pierces me.
I do not think; I am thought.
I do not know; I am known.'

The luminous journal entries attributed to Sister John are alone worth the read -- but there is so much more to be garnered from this marvelous work. The quotation at the very top, another from her journal, is so true for all of us -- particularly in light of recent terrible events. Her journey -- and its resolution -- can inspire us when we need it the most.

This is a book of incredible insight and feeling -- remarkable for its beauty (and frugality) of language. I know that I will find myself returning to it again and again throughout my life. I'm glad it's coming out in paperback -- I can see myself giving a few copies as gifts, and the hardcovers would break me!

I just finished reading in one sitting Lying Awake. I am a Benedictine Monk, and I have never been so impressed by a novel of religious life. Mr. Salzman has written a classic - a spiritual and psychological novel that everyone should read. I don't know how he did it but he captured magnificently the whole of the contemplative life. I have his memoir and two of his previous novels. I knew he was an excellent writer, but this blew me away. I felt as if he got into my mind. The characters are human, but always treated with respect. They are strong women who struggle with their vocations. I hope someone informs Mr. Salzman of the greatness of his work and his ability to capture such a delicate subject with such insight. I am a poet and I felt even as a man as if the book were about me.

I heard Mr. Salzman on NPR talking about this book one day last week on my drive in to work. I thought to myself, "A disease with the side effect of ecstatic visions then prolific writing? Surely this can't be true?!" As soon as I got up on Saturday morning, I headed to the library to see if they had this book in. As luck would have it, there it sat on the new book shelf right inside the front door.

I read this book straight through in one sitting just like Anne Lamott did which she relates in her blurb on the back cover. I also plan to read it again today, much more slowly and contemplatively. What blew me away was the spiritual depth of the book, the slow, painful dawning of enlightenment (much like watching a magnificent sunrise that takes the silent landscape from total blackness to a sparkling kaleidoscope of color and birdsong), that Sister John experiences.

The clincher for me was that I heard the author relate that he is not a spiritual person. Well, Mr. Salzman, whether you know it or not, you ARE a spiritual being (as we all are) and God has used you to pour another little pitcherful of light into this dark, thirsty world. And I thank you!

Hesitate no longer!

If you are reading these reviews and thinking to yourself, `hmmmm should I or shouldn't I?' then wait no longer. Get your hands on this book. No further research is necessary! Salzman's opus surpasses his other books, including The Soloist, by leaps and bounds. A rare treasure that too few will read and even fewer will try to comprehend. Forget the subject matter. Forget any guilt or fear you might have about religion. Forget your stereotypical images of nuns and monasteries. This book, with its complexity/simplicity of a Chinese poem, shines like the brightest star in the night's sky. Everything from the title to the length is perfect.

If you, the web-surfing reader, and I, some silly guy, were somehow friends, and I could recommend only one new book for you then I would whisper these words, "Do not be afraid, have faith that I wouldn't lie, and read this book."

Like most things of value, faith does not come easily. And where it does exist it is seldom found without its fellow traveler, doubt. Yet somehow most of us think that the paragons of faith -- including saints, ascetics, and those modern anomalies, cloistered religious orders -- have come to peace with the demons of doubt. In Lying Awake, Mark Salzman suggests otherwise.

This short, elegant novel set in a monastery in Los Angeles presents us with the crisis of faith faced by Sister John, an otherwise unextraordinary nun who, in early middle age, is suddenly blessed with a gift of divine insight. After struggling for years with a nagging crisis of faith, she quite unexpectedly begins experiencing bursts of insight during which she writes religious poetry of such depth and clarity that she becomes a minor phenomenon in the Catholic Church. Alarmingly, these moments of revelation are followed by severe migraines and occasional blackouts. As it turns out, Sister John has a neurological condition that, it is speculated, also afflicted such visionaries as Dostoevsky and St. Theresa of Avila.

So what does she do? Does she consent to the operation that might save her life but end her visions? Or does she embrace the divine gift that helped her rise above her doubt?

Well, I'm not going to spill the beans -- read the book and find out!

Salzman performs a minor miracle of his own in writing this book. Imagine if you will a novel set in a nunnery that seeks neither to romanticize nor to scandalize. Moreover, I found myself wondering how a non-religious, and a man at that, could have written such a compelling and seemingly realistic book about a world that he couldn't possibly have experienced.

My only complaint is that Salzman gives us no substantial exmaples of Sister John's divinely inspired (or delusional) poetry. But, then again, that might have been the greatest challenge of the whole enterprise for Salzman. After all, it's one thing to assert that a character is blessed with an extraordinary gift and another to show us that gift. If the sampling the author provides falls short of the mark the character's credibility might be shot.

This is a beautiful, painstakingly crafted novel that bespeaks wisdom and humility. Salzman respects his characters and respects our intelligence by making the story believable, by avoiding the mystical and the lurid, and by reminding us that we all have the capacity for faith, but should not expect that having made that proverbial leap that our struggle will be over.

This a slim beautifully written book, which in a simple, profound way allows those of us in the uncloistered world to understand the lives and motivations of those who choose another life. Read in an evening, the book prompted a lot of thought about what experiencing the divine might mean to someone. Sister John is a mystic--or is she just ill? Does it matter? Is her experience of God less real? Is her willingness to give it up for the sake of the community not proof that in fact she found the god she was seeking? Does the experience of god in the way she experiences it lead her away from her community, and does losing it bring her back? For people who puzzle over whether god "exists" in the sense the word is commonly meant, this book will stay with you.

I've never read anything by Mark Salzman before, but I believe Lying Awake is a good starting place. This novel is a very profound, yet simple statement about faith and brings to life the journey of a nun who is faced with a heartbreaking decision. Eloquent writing and vivid imagery pull readers into a sanctuary of peace, undying love for God, and one woman's struggle to justify her faith.

Sister John of the Cross, a Carmelite nun in Los Angeles, has spent the past 28 years in contemplative life. Like others before her, Sister John questions her reasons for being a nun and whether her faith is strong enough to sustain her. And like an answer from God, one day Sister John experiences intense holy visions unlike anything she's ever known before. The visions, although inspiring and glorious, are also accompanied by painful headaches that doctors feel is detrimental to her health. Now Sister John has a decision to make -- to ignore these cautions and accept these visions as special religious favors or to correct the "problem" and return to the ache and loss she felt before.

Mark Salzman's novel is stunning and clear: With visions that bring Sister John closer to God, what consequences are there to her, one who has spent her whole life serving that God, once those visions disappear. Beautiful and powerful for such a short little book and one that will remain in memory for a long time to come.

A group of ten of us from my ashram community set aside Friday nights for reading aloud the novel Lying Awake. We were drawn into the fictional story of Sister John of the Cross and her life in a cloistered community. Although our community structure is quite different from hers, the story touched each of us as we recognized the details that are universal in a community devoted to spiritual living. We have all, like Sister John, made a commitment and been tested to see how strong that commitment is in the face of desire and doubt.

Novelist Mark Salzman writes of Sister John's commitment to the order of the Carmelites. She has lived twenty-eight years inside the cloister, "without television, radios, newspapers, movies, fashion, or men." While in the nunnery, she becomes known for her writing, which is inspired through her recent spiritual visions. There are even plans for Sister John to travel to Rome and present her poetry.

But her visions are triggered by terrible headaches that turn out to be a symptom of epilepsy. She is faced with the dilemma of an operation that could take her visions away. What is the right course of action? What is her commitment asking her to do? What will she do with her doubts about the reality of her God? What about her desire to keep the visions of God?

One of the challenges Sister John encounters, as she leaves her cloistered world for her visits to the hospital, is the discipline needed to keep her mind on God. She learns to make bridges between what she knows and what she is being presented with. In one instance, at the hospital, the doctor kneels before her to do a neurological test on her foot for sensation and reflexes. It reminds her of Mother Mary Joseph kneeling before the nuns on Good Friday to wash their feet. "She pictured the doctor kneeling before patients every day, holding their feet and listening to their complaints and struggling to cure their diseases. How could she have taken so long to welcome the Christ in him?"

Mark Salzman has written with simplicity and deep respect for the process that Sister John undergoes. In that process are the reverberations of what it takes to restate, review and recommit to sacrificing the known so that we can continue willingly into the unknown. We never know when we commit to something-an initiation, a marriage, a career, or an artistic endeavour-what benefits and what challenges we will face.

This book is beautifully written and a joy to read by yourself or with a group.